Fight Deficit Spending

The Fiscal Responsibility Act, is well named. If passed into law it would trigger a cut in Congressional pay for each year in which the federal government runs a deficit.

This bill, introduced as H.R. 4336 in in the 111th Congress (2009), would provide strong incentives for Congress to Downsize DC. It also has the virtue of being only one page long. The full text is provided on the Background page.

The argument here is simple. In every other sector of life, one is paid for performance. Congress does a terrible job, and gets to vote itself a raise. In fact, their salary increases are automatic. That's quite a gig! And the reason they get away with it is that we, the people, haven't made them change to a system that ties their compensation to the quality of their work.

In recent years, this bill has been the strongest of its kind. Others have proposed limits or even freezes on Congressional pay, tied to performance. Only this bill proposes to cut pay for budgetary bungling.

In previous Congressional sessions, former Rep. Nathan Deal (R-GA) introduced the bill. Since the GOP took control of Congress in January, 2011, the bill has NOT been reintroduced. Deal left Congress to become Governor of Georgia. Six co-sponsors of the bill are still in Congress: Rep. Rob Bishop [UT-1],
Rep Jo Ann Emerson [MO-8] , Rep Phil Gingrey [GA-11], Rep Jeff Miller [FL-1] ,
Rep Pete Olson [TX-22], and Rep Lynn A. Westmoreland [GA-3].

Our Educate the Powerful System enables you to send instructions to all of your elected representatives with just one message. Please send a message now.

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I urge you to re-introduce The Fiscal Responsibility Act (formerly HR 4336, in the 111th Congress) to fight deficit spending.

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